Small Town News

Plan and think before looking for that magic number

---

Kyle is taking an important first step in the road to our future - by looking at growth in and around the city over the next 30 years, and building a comprehensive plan.

A concentrated effort on the part of both city staff and longtime community activists to attract participants in the first of three sessions was modestly successful, with about 80 people participating. That's very good attendance when judged against past planning assemblies, but less impressive when compared with the approximate city adult voting population of 8,000 or so.

There is little doubt that the IH-35 corridor tri-cities of Kyle, Buda and San Marcos are going to continue their current rapid growth. That's a given. But we need to have extended discussions about the terms and conditions we -the current residents - want to impose on those who have not yet arrived.

All sorts of changes have occurred over the past decade. Back in 2000, both Kyle and Buda were operating under the general laws of the state. Kyle barely had 5,000 folks living within its boundaries; Buda had considerably less.

Most folks were still nervous about whether the boom would last. We had had a couple of false alarms back in the mid-80s that had sobering consequences.

Those qualms are almost all gone, except for a handful of folks who con-sistendy believe the sky will begin to fall at any moment.

However, before the rest of us decide to move full speed into an all-out quest to hit some exotic magic number (like 100,000 neighbors), we need to have long and hard talks about what are our real "druthers."

Kyle taxpayers have borrowed a considerable sum of money, somewhere around a million dollars if you count the interest, that will accrue before all the bills are paid. Although taxes will be higher for quite a spell, it's clearly "doable."

Our gamble paid off and that encourages some to sing a second verse. That may be the course we need to take, particularly if we find it highly desirable to hit some magic high population figure.

But there are voices in our community that are suggesting there may be another way. To them, quality of life is more important than quantity. "We don't want to be another Round Rock" is a refrain we frequently hear, although former Houston area residents sometimes substitute "Katy" or some other suburban city as their "don't want to be like..."

We need to also talk about the liabilities of gobbling up much of our remaining farm and ranch land, and instead consider the possibility of building up, rather than out. We need to be careful about endangering our delicate waterways of the Blanco River, and Plum and Onion creeks, by further invading the flood plain, thereby fouling the nest we leave for our descendants.

Let's think and talk about the road we want to take. The city government is providing the funds and experienced planners to enable us to do some serious thinking and a bit of investigating before we act.

Let's search both our brains and souls before we embark on this important path into the future.

You can take the next step by attending the upcoming two workshops. The date is not yet set, but read the Hays Free Press for time and meeting dates.



Copyright 2009 The Free Press, Buda, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2009 The Free Press Buda, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from The Free Press